M-920 Cain: The Nuke Launcher
Mass Effect Heavy Weapon
The M-920 Cain was a heavy weapon nicknamed the Nuke Launcher, a portable particle accelerator that hurled a high-explosive round capable of raising a mushroom cloud on impact. Despite the spectacle, its detonations produced no fallout.
The M-920 Cain was a heavy weapon best known by its nickname, the Nuke Launcher. A bulky device prototyped by the scientists of the Normandy, it hurled a charged round whose detonation raised an archetypal mushroom cloud, making it devastating against armor, shields, and biotic barriers. For all its fearsome appearance, its blasts produced no nuclear fallout.
A weapon of last resort#
By the era of the Reaper War, the efficiency of mass-effect weaponry had rendered large-scale explosive armament all but obsolete among infantry. Against that backdrop the scientists of the Normandy prototyped a modified form of traditional high-explosive rounds, applying the explosive matrix to a small slug. Accelerated to great speed, the round was devastating, and its high-explosive matrix generated an archetypal mushroom cloud on impact. Though the label was technically inaccurate, the prototype earned the nickname Nuke Launcher. It inflicted heavy damage across a large area and was effective against armor, shields, and barriers alike.
Design and reputation#
In its later form the M-920 Cain was a portable particle accelerator surrounding an array of dust-form element zero chambers. By subjecting those chambers to extreme positive and negative currents fueled by antimatter reactions, the weapon projected mass effect fields that sheared at its target, warping ambient materials with such explosive force that the impact produced a mushroom cloud. The Cain used graphite rods as neutron moderators, which required frequent replacement to sustain its power. Soldiers of the Systems Alliance took to calling the weapon the nuke gun, but its detonations did not in fact produce fallout, and it carried the radiation trefoil on its flanks despite not being a nuclear-based weapon at all.
Frequently asked questions
- What was the M-920 Cain?
- The M-920 Cain was a heavy weapon nicknamed the Nuke Launcher. It fired a high-explosive round whose blast produced a mushroom cloud on impact, making it devastating against armor, shields, and barriers, though it produced no actual nuclear fallout.
- Why was the M-920 Cain called the Nuke Launcher?
- The weapon's high-explosive matrix generated a mushroom cloud on impact, which earned it the nickname Nuke Launcher, and Alliance marines called it the nuke gun. The label was technically inaccurate, as its detonations did not produce fallout.
- How did the M-920 Cain work?
- In its later form the Cain was a portable particle accelerator surrounding an array of dust-form element zero chambers. By subjecting those chambers to extreme currents fueled by antimatter reactions, it projected mass effect fields that warped ambient materials with such explosive force that the impact produced a mushroom cloud.
Sources
- WikiM-920 Cain — Mass Effect Wiki entry
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